<p>@sybbie719 Yes, I know. I have done that but I am still confused on how financial aid packages work. If your family contribution is 0, how does the student fund all of their tuition? Through a combination of work study? loans? etc etc?</p>
<p>Rose43, waht do you mean “your family contribution is 0”? Does it mean your family is not contributing ANYTHING? DOes it mean you have a Zero FAFSA EFC? Does it mean that the NPC for a given school gives you a family contribution of 0? </p>
<p>What your family is able to contribute means nothing in terms of what financial aid you will get. Families making 6 figures will say they cannot contribute a cent, and they mean it. They are over extended already on their financial commitments and cannot come up with any money for anything else. They can’t do it. But that’s not something any of the calculators and colleges take into consideration. Family income and assets are what go into the calculator, not other commitments, debts, expenses, other than some possible professional judgement exceptions that might be granted for extraordinary circumstances. </p>
<p>If your family FAFSA EFC is zero, that means that you qualify for the max $5700 in PELL grant and that $3500 of your Direct Student loan can be subsidized. That’s the ONLY thing a zero FAFSA EFC will guarantee you. It 's up to each college to come up with their own definition of need and how to meet it </p>
<p>If a particular school’s NPC says your family contribution is zero, it generally gives you a list of how your costs there are expected to be met. They can include grants, loans and workstudy. Some schools will throw a Parent Direct Loan (PLUS) in there as financial aid, and that is something your parent has to qualify for through credit check and may be something they cannot, should not, do not want to take. </p>
<p>So getting a zero family contribution can mean nothing in terms of getting money. IT just means your family does not have the resources under the given calculator to pay anything towards college, whether it’s your parent’s internal calculator saying “we can’t do it”, “won’t do it” to the FAFSA EFC calculator to the schools NPC. What’s important is how the costs of each school are to be met. It depends upon each school what they offer to meet your need. Most schools gap, and you have to figure out how to get that money if you want to go there.</p>
You can do a google search for ‘affordable elites’ and you’ll find a washington monthly listing that is very helpfulin gauging the financial friendliness of schools to low-income families. The listing is sortable and can be found at http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings-2014/affordable-elite-colleges-rank.php
A few snapshots:
pct stu<br>
receive Net Prc Net Prc Net Prc Net Prc Endowment ACT
pell (0-75k) 0-30k) (30-75k) (>75k) Per Stu Med
2 Harvard 11% $3,142 $1,533 $3,774 $25,378 $1,240,548 34
5 Vassar 20% $8,325 $5,078 $9,552 $31,091 $315,668 31
51 Wellesley 18% $10,358 $8,502 $11,867 $33,071 $558,848 31
65 Barnard 20% $13,807 $11,412 $14,884 $37,581 $88,035 30
74 Smith 25% $16,256 $14,445 $17,363 $33,849 $428,890 26
110 Bryn Mawr 19% $14,433 $12,052 $15,279 $34,945 $362,266 29
112 Mount Holyoke 22% $14,708 $11,467 $15,951 $30,548 $229,399 28<br>
146 Scripps 12% $13,842 $12,099 $14,930 $31,528 $257,236 31
148 Agnes Scott 40% $15,400 $14,792 $15,807 $22,995 $268,620 24
I think you won’t know for sure until you apply. Last year DD was offered a 21st century scholarship at Holyoke which was a generous $25K in merit. BMC would have been the most expensive for her to attend out of all her acceptances (Earlham, Juniata, St Olaf, Haverford, Grinnell)-- St Olaf, Juniata and Grinnell would have been the least expensive. Need is calculated differently at every college. GL!